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Obituaries: William Bradford Bissell, William S. Drew

William Bradford Bissell

Dr. William Bradford Bissell, of West Palm Beach, Florida and Shelter Island, passed away Sunday, April 28, 2013 after a brief illness of metatastic melanoma.  He was the beloved husband of 44 years to Carmen Hoge Bissell.

He was born in New York City in 1923 and attended Choate School and Yale University.  He graduated from New York Medical College in 1948.  He did his rotating internship at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.  He did his residencies and fellowships at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, New York Hospital, Sloan Kettering Memorial Center and Bryn Mawr Hospital, in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bissell was a pathologist in the Army at the 98th General Hospital, Munich, Germany and the 125th Station Hospital in Berlin, Germany.

He was on the staff of Bryn Mawr Hospital, at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, J.T. Mather Memorial Hospital, St. Charles Hospital and Eastern Long Island Hospital as the director of Pathology and Laboratories.

Dr. Bissell was the owner and director of Bayshore Medical Laboratory in East Patchogue and Bay Shore.  In 1989, the laboratory was purchased by Smith Kline B. L.   He was a Fellow Emeritus of the College of American Pathologists, a Fellow Emeritus of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and of the American Society of Cytology.

Dr. Bissell was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars and the English Speaking Union of Palm Beach.  He was a member of the Yale Club of New York,  the Shelter Island Yacht Club and,  for many years, a member of the Bathing Corporation of Southampton, The Meadow Club and Shinnecock Golf Club.

Dr. Bissell was raised in Suffield, Connecticut.  His parents were Karl Hauck Bissell and Phoebe Doelger Bissell, also of Hopewell,  Jamaica, B.W.I.  He was from a family of five sons and one daughter.   He was also the nephew of the late William Doelger of Palm Beach.

He was a devoted husband and father and grandfather to Dr. William Bradford Hoge Bissell, his wife Dr. Rachel Bruce Bissell, granddaughters Phoebe and Charlotte of Arlington, Vermont;  William Shepard Fast and his children William. Brendan, Lisa Marie and Andrew of Poultney, Vermont;  Caroline Hoge Federowicz, her husband Dr. Dan Federowicz, and their four daughters Christina, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Alexandra of Vestal, New York; and Barbara Hoge Moran and her husband Steve Moran of Palm Beach and son James Corthell Young.  He is also survived by 18 nieces and nephews.

Dr. Bissell attended the Royal Poinciana Chapel since 1987 where a service will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, remembrance may be made to the Hospice of the Palm Beaches, 5300 East Avenue, West Palm Beach, Florida 33407 in memory of Dr. William Bissell.

William S. Drew

William S. Drew, who first came to Shelter Island in the mid-1970s, moved here permanently in 1986, died on April 28, 2013. Bill was 93 years old. A memorial service will be held on June 1 at the Chapel at Camp Quinipet. Details will be provided in the next edition of the Reporter.

Bill was born in Flushing, Queens. New York. He was educated at the Sunnydown School in Surrey England, later at the Putney School in Vermont (from which he still receives Christmas cards), and then at SUNY at Farmingdale where he studied animal husbandry. His first job was on a ranch in Colorado, which is memorialized by a hat hanging in his Shelter Island home bearing the legend “Stetson, Bill Drew Paid One Week’s Salary $5.00 in 1941.”

He joined the American Field Service as part of the English military in World War II, driving battlefront ambulances in Africa, Burma and India. His knowledge of the Urdu dialect gleaned from this period remained admittedly selective, but many of his family and friends, including many Islanders, have heard these colorful phrases.

Throughout his time with the Field Service he traveled worldwide. Upon returning to the U.S. he married and worked briefly with an airline, but his major life’s work was with First National Citibank, later to become Citibank, and now Citigroup. He served as a building designer for part of 111 Wall Street, FNC’s major downtown building. He later served in senior managerial roles for the planning and construction of the iconic Citibank building at 399 Park Avenue. At this time, his family, including sons Christopher and Timothy, lived in Northport, Long Island.

His early retirement, divorce and subsequent marriage to Maxine Kass led to frequent weekend sojourns to Shelter Island in the 1970s and the construction of a home here where he and Maxine lived. In all ways, this part of his life was the happiest. His sailboat, the Magnolia, was soon a fixture in Shelter Island catboat racing regattas. He was everywhere on the Island, always greeting with a cheerful and friendly line, volunteering and participating in everything that he could. He was a long-time volunteer for Meals on Wheels and a strong supporter of the Mashomack Preserve.

To his close family, his friends and neighbors, and even those he had just met, Bill was someone who clearly and simply loved life, and did all he could to enjoy it. Friends and family will forever remember his warmth, humanity, humor and direct engagement with so many of us from so many walks of life. His wife and fellow Shelter Islander Maxine Kass, his sons Christopher and Timothy Drew, his step-sons, David and Neal Kass, nine grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren will all miss him.